


Take This Cleaver on My Heart

by JazzGirl123



Series: A Drabble a Day Keeps the Doctor Away [11]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 09:05:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8483518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JazzGirl123/pseuds/JazzGirl123
Summary: We can never be together.Reuploaded from Drabbles, Drabbles, and more Drabbles.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Blame @ sadrienagreste / amandatoryegg for the prompt. The rest is from an idea I've had for a while now: Marinette trying to move on from both Adrien and Chat Noir – or rather, she has given up on them ever loving her.

How many years had it been?

How much time had she spent staring at those posters of him on her wall? How much time had she spent watching him leap off the roofs of the buildings of Paris in the middle of the night?

How long had it been since she had abandoned her stutters in front of him? How long had it been since his flirtations caused an unbearable heat to spread across her face?

Marinette ran a hand tiredly over her face, feeling her sighs of frustration build up even more. She could vaguely feel Tikki’s small form nuzzling against her thigh in comfort.

“How old am I now, Tikki?” She asked softly, more to herself than to her kwami companion of six years. “This is absolutely ridiculous.”

“There’s nothing ridiculous about feeling things, Marinette,” assured Tikki quickly, darting up into the air so she was at eye level. “You’re just conflicted, and that happens.”

Marinette closed her eyes, a frustrated sigh escaping her lips as she collapsed backwards on her bed.

“My little crush on Adrien turned into a one-sided love, and my affection for Chat Noir changed from one of friendship to one of something a little more…yet, I feel like I am with Chat Noir when I am with Adrien and I feel like I am with Adrien when I am with Chat Noir. Ugh, does that even make sense? I’m twenty-one, Tikki, and I still sound like some confused lovestruck teenager!”

“Well, you are lovestruck,” remarked Tikki, a weak attempt at lightening the mood. “Oh, don’t feel too bad, Marinette. There’s nothing wrong with loving two people.”

“No,” agreed Marinette softly, finally opening her eyes as she stared at her ceiling with a look of regret on her face. “But I got punished for it anyways.”

Tikki gave her a curious look as she slowly sat up on her bed, a hand running through her navy blue hair – much longer and wavier than it was when she was in high school.

“Adrien rejected me, don’t you remember, Tikki?” Marinette began, absently glancing at her now barren walls that were once adorned with countless photos and posters of one Adrien Agreste. “He said he was in love with someone else.”

“But that was years ago - !”

Marinette continued as if she didn’t hear her.

“And Chat…he’s still a flirt, but the gestures seem…empty now, don’t you think? As if calling me his Lady and kissing my hand are just routine, not sincere actions. It’s as if he fell out of love me.”

“Oh, Marinette,” began Tikki. “I’m sure that’s not true; Chat Noir has been entirely dedicated to you since you became partners all those years ago.”

“And what if that dedication is just because we’re partners? Tikki, I’ve rejected him so many times that I really wouldn’t be surprised if he did give up on me,” cried Marinette, her voice cracking a bit as she slipped off her bed. “I really messed up.”

Tikki watched her pace the room through concerned eyes.

“And…what will you do then?” The red fairy asked hesitantly.

Marinette slowly made her way to her monitor and revealed her new desktop background, not one of Adrien but a group shot of her, Adrien, Nino, and Alya celebrating New Year’s together. A friendly background. A safe background.

“I think…it’s time I finally let them go.”

~

“Purr-ty night, isn’t it, my Lady?” Chat immediately remarked as he leaped onto the roof of their usual meeting spot.

“That was weak,” came Ladybug’s response, along with her usual eyeroll. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Except Chat was the one person who could read her better than anyone else, and he immediately knew something was off about his partner.

“What’s wrong?” He asked worriedly, sitting down next to her. “Did something happen, are you okay?”

Ladybug wouldn’t face him, but he could tell that a small smile graced her lips momentarily.

“You’re always so concerned,” she said softly. “Chat, I’ve been doing some thinking…and I just wanted to apologize.”

Taken aback, Chat was about to ask what she could possibly be apologizing for – he couldn’t, for the life of him, think of anything she had done or said that should have prompted an apology – when she resumed speaking.

“All these years, I’ve been treating you so horribly,” said Ladybug, still not looking at him. “I should have been kinder to you, should have appreciated you more, and definitely shouldn’t have been cold whenever you tried to show me your affections. For that, I am so, so sorry, Chat Noir.”

“My Lady, you don’t need to apologize for that,” tried Chat, but his words fell on deaf ears.

“And I am sorry that I have to leave.”

Chat’s eyes widened to a ridiculously large size as he gaped at her.

“What?” He choked out.

Ladybug finally looked at him, her bright blue eyes glimmering with tears.

“I’m not abandoning Ladybug,” she promised. “Even though with Hawkmoth gone, there’s no need for us to really be here. I just…well, I guess my wording was poor; I should have said I need a break.”

She fully turned her body to properly face him, making herself small and detached as she pulled her legs to her chest, and Chat loathed the idea that she felt she couldn’t be open around him.

“Need a break?” He echoed softly. “From…what – or who?”

Ladybug sighed softly, her lower lip disappearing under her teeth as she nibbled on it anxiously. Almost by instinct, his gaze darted down to take in the scene before he mentally chastised himself.

“I was rejected by someone a few years ago,” she finally said after a few moments of silence. “I had a huge crush on him for years, and then somewhere over time, that crush turned into something more.”

Chat, although a little hurt his Lady was in fact in love with someone else, listened to her intently and nodded reassuringly when she looked at him worriedly. It was clear she had a lot to say and he wasn’t going to worry about his own feelings at the moment.

Ladybug let out a bitter sort of laugh.

“Honestly, if I didn’t have feelings for him, I would have said yes to your affections a lot sooner,” she admitted, making his eyes widen. “My heart, for the longest time, only belonged to him…and then…a certain someone managed to steal my heart too. I thought maybe our luck had been switched at that point because I had fallen in love with two people, one who didn’t see me that way and another who probably moved on.”

Ladybug played with one of her pigtails. Without realizing it, Chat moved closer to her, to provide some sort of comfort.

“I just need time to clear my head, Chat, and to…move on myself,” she said, almost in a whisper as her eyes met his. “I’ve been so selfish all this time…”

Slowly, Ladybug lifted her hand and her gloved fingers grazed over his cheek, his eyes closing at the contact as he unconsciously leaned in closer to feel more.

“So selfish,” repeated the so-called lucky superhero as she closed the distance between them, her other hand cupping his opposite cheek as he pulled her closer to him.

His mouth slanted against hers, one clawed hand reaching up and caressing her face tenderly, absently wiping away the tears that rolled down her cheeks.

It wasn’t their first kiss together, but it was certainly the first one that Chat remembered; he knew of their kiss from when they were teenagers, but he himself didn’t remember any of it.

However, as blissful as it was, Chat knew there was something else to the kiss; it wasn’t a kiss of ‘I love you; let’s stay together forever’ but one of ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry’.

Something suddenly clicked in his brain – the familiarity of her lips against his. He had kissed her before – no, not as Chat, but as Adrien.

He struggled to recall who he had kissed – as a model, he had shared far too many kisses with others but he doubted it was any of them – and the name finally came to him just as Ladybug pulled away.

“Goodbye, Chat,” she whispered, her voice hoarse. “I’ll always be your partner.”

And before the unlucky hero could stop her, she was gone.

After a few moments, the transformation wore off and Plagg stared at his companion with a concerned look.

Adrien knew those lips – it had been a small kiss between the two of them, awkward and apologetic under the mistletoe. She had been in pain, he remembered, because the timing had been so awful; it was far too soon after her rejection, yet she had put up a brave face anyways – a façade as natural as his – and tried to play it off.

Just like then, she tasted of vanilla.

And finally, the name slid off his tongue in a rueful whisper.

“ _Marinette_.”


End file.
